Giving Back to My Community with Donations of Zhu Zhu Pets, Leapfrog Toys, and Books from Scholastic and Sandra Magsamen

While we live in DC Metro suburb that often appears on lists proclaiming us to be among the “most wealthy” and “most highly educated” in the nation, our county has pockets of poverty where families struggle to put food on the table, send their kids to school in ill-fitting shoes, lack supplies to complete homework, or can’t afford to buy warm coats for the winter months.

It’s hard to imagine families with so little but in the schools, you see students come to school and try to learn on empty stomachs, wearing shoes that are two sizes too small, while making up excuses about having forgotten their coat at home.  As a teacher, it’s heartbreaking to know this goes on and that there are kids who will wake up tomorrow in a house where Christmas is just like any other day of the year.

I know we aren’t the only community where this happens but feel fortunate that for the past three years, I’ve been able to help local families through a holiday giving program run by staff at my former school.  For 11 years my colleagues have upheld a tradition of forgoing the holiday gift exchange for each other and giving donations to benefit families in lieu of gifts.

Over the past 11 years, more than $12,000 has been donated to help at least 30 community families which included students form our school.  This year the tradition of donating continued with staff members contributing cash, checks, and gift cards to local grocery stores, Target, Kohl’s, and Sear’s stores.  In previous years there have been generous toy donation by various companies but this year, companies who donated toys in the past had to back out for financial reasons.

This year I took a leave of absence from teaching but vowed to use my connections with toy companies and public relations agencies to benefit local families.  Working with the school, I learned that there were 146 children (74 girls and 72 boys) that were in need of toys for the holidays.  That’s a lot of kids but I was up for the challenge of using my connections to obtain a gift for each and every child who ranged in age from infant to 15.

I was fortunate to be contacted by MomSelect to be 1 of 100 bloggers to participate in their Random Acts of Zhu holiday giving program.  Cepia LLC, the makers of the popular Zhu Zhu pets, selected 100 bloggers to give away a total of 10,400 Zhu Zhus all over the country as way to spread holiday joy to the charity of our choice.

Our awesome delivery guy carried the 13 boxes up our steps that housed the 104 Zhu Zhu pets for 105 four to twelve year olds and we were so excited when they arrived!


I know you are thinking that I was one short.  I was but I had hosted a Zhu Zhu pet party for MomSelect earlier in the year and happened to have an extra!  I filled the back of the car with boxes of Zhu Zhus and visited the school for my first delivery!

Next I reached out to my friends at LeapFrog about donating 10 items for the 3 year olds on my list.  Making fabulous educational toys for kids of all ages, I thought the 3 year olds on my list would benefit from products promoting early literacy.  I worked with LeapFrog last year for large donation that benefitted children at a local women’s shelter and a generous donation of toys for families at our school.

Once again, they did not disappoint and sent boxes containing My Own Leaptops, Fridge Phonics, and the Fridge Words Magnetic Word Builder.

While at Type A Mom, I had the opportunity to meet Dina from Big Honcho Media in person.  We’d corresponded about the Spaceheadz book tour via email prior to the conference but when we met, we immediately clicked!  I mentioned my holiday giving campaign and while it was only September and I had no idea what the school’s needs would be, she said she’d love to help.

Fast forward to the present and without hesitation, Dina hooked me up with a giant box of books from Scholastic’s Little Scholastic line (which are household favorites!) and introduced me to Sandra Magsamen’s Snuggle Me Stories and Peek-A-Boo books, all perfect for the youngest children on the list!

The twenty 13-15 year olds remained but unfortunately I wasn’t able to secure a donation of the remaining 20 items for the teens on the list.  This was disappointing because it meant that I fell short of my personal goal by not having things to give to 20 kids.

The school has assured me that the teens will receive gifts and each of the families will have a brighter holiday thanks to the gift cards that will be purchased with my colleague’s donations and the items from the companies that I worked with.

• Cepia LLC for the Zhu Zhu Pets

• MomSelect  for selecting me to participate in Random Acts of Zhu

• LeapFrog for the fantastic toys that promote early literacy

• Big Honcho Media for jumping in to participate with no hesitation

• Scholastic for all of the Little Scholastic titles

• Sandra Magsamen for her great selection of board and fabric books

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Original post by Tech Savvy Mama
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